Powerball Jackpot Tops Half-Billion Mark After No Wednesday Winners

UPDATE 1 a.m.: No one hit the jackpot so it soars to $510 million for the Saturday, Aug. 20 drawing.

The Powerball jackpot swelled to $432.5 million for the Wednesday, Aug. 16 drawing. It's the ninth largest jackpot in Powerball history. The cash payout was an estimated $273.4 million. The winning numbers for Wednesday were: 9-15-43-60-64 and Powerball No. 4.

Powerball drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time. The record in the game was a $1.6 billion drawing in January 2016, which was won by a group of Tennessee workers.

A Powerball ticket worth $50,000 was sold at a Long Island deli for this past Saturday's drawing.

Powerball is played in 44 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Players pick five numbers from one to 69 and a sixth Powerball number, one through 26. (Most people just choose to get random numbers.) There are various levels of payouts, but to win the ultimate jackpot, you have to match all five numbers plus the Powerball.

The odds of that happening? Just 1 in 292,201,338. In other words, don't cash out your kids' college fund to buy tickets.

A winner can pick two ways to claim their prize. The first is an annuity that is paid out 30 times over 29 years. The second is an immediate cash payout that is available immediately but is significantly less money than the total jackpot.